An insured we will call Bill and Nancy own 27 cars, a "few" homes, 15 boats, and a lot of other stuff! They are named insureds on everything. Now the kicker...Bill and Nancy are getting divorced! Bill wants his insurance agent to remove Nancy on everything except two autos and a boat. Bill faxes the agent documentation that shows that all the autos are registered to him alone. This is a large and very good account for the agent that Bill controls. The struggle is to keep Bill happy but to act legally and ethically to both parties.

If you are the insured in such a scenario, you should be aware that you MUST, for many reasons, resolve this with your spouse...don't put your insurance agent in the middle of a personal feud. In the example above, he fact that the vehicles are registered in Bill's name is probably immaterial...we suspect, depending on applicable state laws, that an ownership interest exists beyond registration or titling. Most important, since Nancy is a named insured (in this case), she has equal rights under the contract which MUST be honored.

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